Netaji’s family members condemn snooping by IB officials

Family members of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose might have condemned the snooping by sleuths of the Intelligence Bureau (IB) on their family in post-independence era, but after going through some details of the declassified files, they admired the level of efficiency and diligence with which the surveillance was carried on for years.

Files relating to Indian freedom fighter Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose are displayed at the Police Museum in Kolkata. The West Bengal government declassified 64 files related to Bose.(AFP Photo)

Family members of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose might have condemned the snooping by sleuths of the Intelligence Bureau (IB) on their family in post-independence era, but after going through some details of the declassified files, they admired the level of efficiency and diligence with which the surveillance was carried on for years.

“The way the sleuths snooped on our family, close friends of the Bose family and members of the Indian National Army (INA) and tracked their each and every movement was admirable. We condemn the snooping but I should say that you don’t find such level of efficiency and diligence in today’s sleuths. Had such degree of efficiency existed today, crime would have gone down,” Chandra Bose, grand nephew of Netaji said.

The 64 files, nine of which were in custody of the IB, were declassified on Friday. Citizens would be able to go through the files from Monday at the Kolkata Police Museum.

The files reveal how sleuths tracked every move of Bose family members — particularly Netaji’s nephew Amiya Nath Bose and elder brother Sarat Chandra Bose — and opened all letters that were posted from or arrived at the addresses on Elgin Road and Woodburn Park.

Anyone close to the family was put through a thorough background check.

File 61 contains a ‘secret’ letter dated March 29, 1968 in which a top ranking intelligence official is writing to DIG of IB in West Bengal requesting an ‘up-to-date note on the activities of Amiya Nath Bose giving his personal particulars and political proclivities’.

“Some of the files hint that the Nehru government also spied on those Congress leaders who came to meet Sarat Chandra Bose. This is unimaginable,” Chandra Bose said.

Netaji’s nephew Dwarka Nath Bose said: “Even the Chinese community was tracked after it surfaced that Netaji could have been in China sometime.”

“The way they snooped on us can be compared with the level of snooping the US had made on the family members and associates of Osama Bin Laden before they could zero down on him,” said Chandra Bose.